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Standard development acting deputy at BSN, Donny Purnomo. (ANTARA/HO-Humas Badan Standardisasi Nasional/uyu) - 

The National Standardization Agency (BSN) has said it is formulating Indonesian National Standards (SNI) for medical gases, which would serve as a reference for domestic producers in responding to increased medical oxygen needs amid the pandemic.

“We (BSN) expect this regulation to be applied by local producers, experts, and other stakeholders to keep innovating to fulfill the rising oxygen demand and improve the competitiveness of the industry amid this COVID-19 pandemic,” standard development acting deputy at BSN, Donny Purnomo, said here on Friday.

“It (The regulation) does not aim to supervise domestic circulation of imported medical gas products since the supervision can be conducted by giving requirements for the importers to meet the origin or international standards,” he added.

The jump in the number of COVID-19 patients in the second wave of the pandemic has led to a rise in the demand for medical oxygen, medical gas cylinders, regulators, flow meters, as well as oxygen concentrators, he said. Hence, the BSN is trying to identify international standards that can be adopted as SNI, he added.

As the first step, BSN said it will establish an SNI Formulation Technical Committee along with experts. After the committee is formed, a technical or consensus meeting will take place through the Republication Reprinted Adoption method. Then, a survey will be conducted for 20 days. Finally, the targeted SNI will be rolled out by the end of August, 2021, Purnomo said//ANT